INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana's decision this year to observe daylight-saving time statewide was supposed to end 30 years of clock-changing confusion. Instead, it started a battle that could create a state time-zone system as puzzling as a Rubik's Cube.

At least 19 counties had asked to move from Eastern to Central time as of Friday, the deadline to submit requests. If the federal government says yes to all the requests, a person driving from Chicago to southwestern Indiana could go from Central time to Eastern to Central to Eastern and finally back to Central.

"What we are doing is just creating new confusion for ourselves," said retired Indiana University economist Morton Marcus.

Indiana, like a dozen other states, has long had multiple time zones. But most states are either split roughly down the middle or have only slivers in a different zone.

In Indiana, the situation is more complicated. Eighty-two of the state's 92 counties are in the Eastern time zone, but only five change clocks with daylight-saving time. Ten other counties — five in northwestern Indiana and five in the southwest — are on Central time and have observed daylight-saving time.

The clock confusion made the state the butt of jokes and even provided a plot line for television's "The West Wing."

Gov. Mitch Daniels and businesses argued for a fix, saying the time warp was more than embarrassing because it cost the state money and jobs and created mix-ups over airline flights, delivery times and conference calls.

A law enacted in April required observation of daylight-saving time and compelled Daniels to ask federal officials to determine if time boundaries should be changed.

Daniels did so, but he did not state a time-zone preference, something the Transportation Department — which regulates time zones — said was unprecedented. The department said individual counties had to apply for time-zone changes on their own.

A potential checkerboard emerged. St. Joseph County, which includes Notre Dame University and the 106,000 residents of South Bend, wants to shift from Eastern to Central time.

Officials in Tippecanoe County, home to Purdue University, cited economic ties to Indianapolis in deciding to stay with that city on Eastern time. But neighboring Carroll and White counties want Central time.

The Transportation Department hasn't said when it will decide whether to hold hearings on the requests.

The department judges requests on factors including whether a change would help business, where area businesses get their supplies and where the television and radio signals it receives originate.